Topic: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

[Xessive]

Skyrim Tweak Guide is up!

[W7RE]

I got the Xbox version as an early Christmas present and restarted. I've logged 45 hours on it, and have had very few issues. Why? I'm playing offline with no patches (not even the day 1 patch, which seemed to be a good patch overall, from what I've heard) I also don't have it installed to the hard drive (to avoid the texture quality issue that 1.2 fixed).

The few bugs I have seen:
-One quest objective from a completed quest is stuck in my log. (It's to talk to an NPC, whom I've killed as part of the quest.)
-My Xbox locked up once, during a loading screen. (at about the 43 hour mark)
-The crosshair doesn't always update when crouching/standing up. I just had it showing the normal crosshair while I was crouching, and I couldn't figure out why I was slow and couldn't sprint.

I think that's it, other than just weird stuff (mostly with companions) which I'd consider bad AI or something, not bugs/glitches.

Oh and the quick weapon swapping sucks when using dual wield. Using a 2 hander and a bow I can assign one to dpad left and one to dpad right. I assign my bow to dpad right, and my mainhand dagger to dpad left. If I at any point swap to a spell with one hand, there's no telling what weapon will end up in the other hand, and pressing dpad left will start giving me a spell + a weapon, or sometimes a spell plus an empty hand. It just seems sort of broken, and inconsistently so.




The game itself is amazing though. The few bugs I've encountered, and the need to refuse the patch and go offline every time I load it up, are totally worth dealing with for this game. (yea, you shouldn't have to, but they're not enough to make me stop playing)

[MysterD]

Skyrim Tweak Guide is up!

Nice job, Nvidia!
That's MASSIVE!

[idolminds]

I just gotta say, I love the mustard avatar, D.

[W7RE]

Patch 1.3 is out on Steam. It's being submitted to Sony and Microsoft, so should be out soon on those platforms.

• General stability improvements
• Optimize performance for Core 2 Duo CPUs (PC)
• Fixed Radiant Story incorrectly filling certain roles
• Fixed magic resistances not calculating properly
• Fixed issue with placing books on bookshelves inside player purchased homes
• Fixed dragon animation issues with saving and loading
• Fixed Y-look input to scale correctly with framerate

http://www.bethblog.com/2011/12/07/skyrim-update-1-3-now-on-steam/

[MysterD]

Patch 1.3 is out on Steam. It's being submitted to Sony and Microsoft, so should be out soon on those platforms.

http://www.bethblog.com/2011/12/07/skyrim-update-1-3-now-on-steam/

Also worth noting in that post is the will address the 4GB LAA issue in an update next week for Skyrim PC.

[Cobra951]

I got the Xbox version as an early Christmas present and restarted. I've logged 45 hours on it, and have had very few issues. Why? I'm playing offline with no patches (not even the day 1 patch, which seemed to be a good patch overall, from what I've heard) I also don't have it installed to the hard drive (to avoid the texture quality issue that 1.2 fixed).

. . .

Why do you want to avoid all the patches?  Do they make the game worse?  I'm holding off until they get the big issues solved, however long that may take.

[W7RE]

The day 1 patch was fine. It fixed an issue that would make your textures all low rez if installed to the xbox hard drive. It didn't add any noticeable bugs that I've heard of.

Patch 1.2 made dragons bug out and fly backwards, sometimes be unkillable because of their erratic behavior. Also, resistances are broken, so magic spells always do full damage. (great if you're a mage I guess, but terrible for defending against magic)


When 1.3 comes out and I don't hear about any new bugs for it, I'll patch my game. I'd like to install to the hard drive, but since I don't have the patch that fixed the texture issue, I'm running off the disc.

[Cobra951]

You can also install to a USB device, if you have one big enough.  What you can't do is install to the internal HDD apparently because it conflicts with using the HDD cache area.  One of the Halos drops in performance if you install it there for similar reasons.  If the HDD is present, the game depends on caching some data on it while still reading other parts of the game image from the DVD (or some other separate device).  That design doesn't work well if the game image is on the HDD.  The load can't be split across devices anymore.

[W7RE]

I feel like my one-handed skill is lagging behind. On my first character I was using a great sword, and by level 12 my two-handed skill was 42. On my current character I've been using dual daggers/stealth the whole time. I'm level 35 and have 53 one-handed skill. I sort of feel it in any stand up fight, like end of dungeon bosses and dragons.

EDIT: It looks like stealth kills with daggers don't give you One-Handed skill, just Sneak skill. Or it's very little and thus hard to tell. If I sneak attack someone with a dagger and one-shot them, I see no noticeable gain in One-Handed skill, but probably 10-15% gain in Sneak (with level 53 1H and level 70 Sneal). If I try the same with a bow though, I see a 5-10% gain in Archery skill (which is at 42), and no noticeable gain in Sneak.

[Pugnate]

Is it just me... or is the game a bit... easy?

The dragon wasn't hard to kill and my stealth ninja elf is sneaking kills with his bow easily.

[W7RE]

Sneak + bows is pretty strong. With my mix of bow and dual daggers, the bow is much more powerful. I start most fights by picking people off with the bow and then resort to daggers when they get close. I get melee stealth kills when I can because they're guaranteed kills (30X damage), but the bow shots are decent too, and way easier to pull off.

You could just turn the difficulty up. I've heard you pretty much have to at some point or the game gets too easy, because the player's power scales up past the content, especially if you're abusing smithing/enchanting/alchemy.

[Pugnate]

hahah there is a difficulty slider?

[W7RE]

hahah there is a difficulty slider?

I think you can only access it after starting your character. It's in the options somewhere, under gameplay I think. I think there's 5 settings, and it's on the middle by default.

[MysterD]

hahah there is a difficulty slider?

Morrowind and Oblivion had this feature...

[Xessive]

Can't check right now (at work) but I believe the difficulty slider is in the options menu (just like in Morrowind and Oblivion).

I generally keep it on Normal difficulty because everything scales with me (to an extent) anyway and to leave room for the wonky AI behaviour. Sometimes I get killed instantly when I'm at full health, I get to see a cool insta-kill animation but it sucks that I died.

[W7RE]

Yea, it's under System, Settings, Gameplay, Difficulty. Options are Novice, Apprentice, Adept (default), Expert, Master.

I'm keeping it at adept. It's felt fine my whole way through so far. I"m level 39 now and I'm getting to where I'm 1-2 shotting enemies with stealth kills, but then in the same dungeon/area I'll find enemies that have a lot more like and are a serious threat.


EDIT: Oh and I've got another bugged quest. Second one so far. I guess to become a thane of Riften, you have to buy the house, then talk to the Jarl. I bought the house and then went off adventuring. Later I went to talk to the Jarl and she has nothing to say. I talked to her steward and got a quest, but it's to clear out a bandit tower that I cleared already a long time ago. So I go check it out, and there's 2 bandits respawned there, but not the chief. Now I can't turn this quest in, and can't become a thane in Riften.

[Xessive]

Really? I became a Thane before I got the house. I only bought the house because I felt it appropriate for a Thane to have a house in Whiterun

[Xessive]

Dovahkiinect: Modder Adds Surprisingly Impressive Motion Control to Skyrim

There's a video in there, pretty awesome conceptually.

[W7RE]

Actually I guess it's not that I can't become Thane. I can't get a housecarl. I think I was named thane when I was told I could buy a house, and was also told to come back and see the Jarl after I had bought it. I missed that part and didn't come back until later.

[Xessive]

Actually I guess it's not that I can't become Thane. I can't get a housecarl. I think I was named thane when I was told I could buy a house, and was also told to come back and see the Jarl after I had bought it. I missed that part and didn't come back until later.

Well, I became a Thane of Whiterun after taking down my first dragon and Lydia was assigned as my housecarl automatically.

I've come across a few quest bugs but luckily I had previous saves.

[W7RE]

Yea the thane of Whiterun situation is easy, it's part of the story. Apparently for the other towns you have to help out people in the town and then the Jarl will make you thane and give you a housecarl. It worked fine for me in Whiterun, but I'm supposed to get a housecarl for Riften as well (Lydia sits by herself in my Whiterun house, you can't tell her to go to another house like you can your wife).

[Quemaqua]

Good to see them officially addressing the PS3 issues.

W7, you playing on PC? Might be a way to console yourself the housecarl or set some value or other?

[W7RE]

W7, you playing on PC? Might be a way to console yourself the housecarl or set some value or other?

Nope. I "obtained" the PC version from a friend (used his Steam account), but then another friend bought me the Xbox version as an early Christmas gift. So I'm playing on Xbox.

[Cobra951]

Update 12/15: The update is now up on Xbox LIVE.  [Yay!]  The PS3 update is in the hands of Sony and we’ll let you know when it’s live. For PC players, the Large Address Aware update is currently in testing. More to come soon.

http://www.bethblog.com/2011/12/07/skyrim-update-1-3-now-on-steam/

Alrighty.  This is looking better for grabbing early next year, sometime.

[MysterD]

http://www.bethblog.com/2011/12/07/skyrim-update-1-3-now-on-steam/

Alrighty.  This is looking better for grabbing early next year, sometime.

TRU supposed to have for this game next week for console versions for $40
So, you might wanna watch the flyers.

Since Amazon matches a lot, I'm hoping Amazon'll match this and ALSO include the PC version w/ the same price, too.
A man can dream...

[W7RE]

The 1.3 patch is out for Xbox, and PS3 I think. The only changes I'm sure of are fixing backwards flying dragons that behave erratically, and magic magic resistances work again.

I haven't tried it yet, so no idea if it broke anything.

[MysterD]

Skyrim PS3 or X360 [consoles only] = $40 at Toys R Us (TRU) this week.

I'll keep my eyes peeled if Amazon or anybody else matches this.
Hopefully, Amazon, maybe? They match sales and beat prices of others A LOT.

And if somebody has the guts to ALSO put the PC version on sale for this price [or less], that'd be awesome...

My eyes remain wide open...

[MysterD]

SkyUI - another UI mod to try and fix Skyrim PC's Inventory.

[Xessive]

Awesome!

Way to go Bethesda, leave it to the community to fix your game!

[MysterD]

Skyrim PC patch 1.3.10.0 released last night to add 4GB LAA support officially.

[Xessive]

TESV Acceleration Layer

A new TESV Acceleration Layer Mod for Skyrim is receiving a lot of attention, because it can apparently significantly improve performance in CPU-limited areas, such as near major cities.

Mod author's explanation here.

[MysterD]

Sounds about right...

[Quemaqua]

Hahaha, completely.

[MysterD]

This game is something.

Redguard Woman Quest

(click to show/hide)

One of the big jaw-dropping quests for me.
Basically, these mercs want you to find a Redguard woman who committed treason in the town...and is of royal blood. So, eventually, I find her in the town...at a bar.
Talk to her - and you decide what to do there. Turn her in or talk to a captured merc who's in prison. I picked to talk to the merc.
Went to the merc and paid the money to get bail him out to get him released from prison. He tells me where the mercs are, before the guards decide to release him. The guards pretend to lose the keys and don't let the prisoner go.
I go to their hideout, attack them, but the lead merc doesn't want to fight...yet. Saved the game. Talk to him and he gives me an option - fight the mercs there [to the death] OR lie to the Redguard woman to set her up.
If you lie to her, you say that you killed the mercs [when you really didn't] and that she needs to go to the Stables and get a horse out of there. But, the plan is the lead merc will be waiting for her at nearby stable so he can assassinate her - major set-up.
First time, fought mercs - got slaughtered and died. Way too hard. Reloaded and tried a few times - no chance in Hell.
Reloaded last save, instead told the lead merc I decided to instead lie to Redguard woman to set her up....
There's no dialogue tree for this option, but I underneath w/ this decision have hidden intentions of hoping I could do something NOT an option in the dialogue tree - use her as bait and kill the leader, if possible. Just had to hope there's no cut-scene or anything where you sit there and have to watch him kill her...
So, I meet up w/ her at the bar, lied to her and told her I killed the mercs...and that she should get to the Stables to get a horse and leave the city.
I go w/ her to the stable, lead merc waits for her there - no other mercs w/ him.
She's caught by surprise that she was set-up when she sees the lead merc [no dialogue trees here, just voice-acting in-game and still everything is in play] to kill him then and there before he could do anything about it.
She yells at me, is upset she was set-up, and then thanks me still for saving her life so she can keep working at the bar and not fear for her life.
AWESOME quest.

[Quemaqua]

That's pretty cool, I never thought of that.

(click to show/hide)

I'm playing my character as very anti-authoritarian, very pro-Skyrim and anti-Empire, even though she's a Breton. So they won me over when they mentioned that the Redguard chick worked with the Aldmeri Dominion. Let that traitor bitch get hauled off to justice!

[shock]

I actually played that quest very similarly MyD.

(click to show/hide)

I did the exact same stuff until the end.  The guy paralyzes her and the quest is completed.  Then I killed both of them, with him going first.

That's sort of my golden rule with my sneaking/dual dagger/Dark Brotherhood guy: can I kill this guy without fucking something up?  If yes, then kill.   I killed that stupid preaching guy in Whiterun because he was being too loud and annoying when I returned from my Companion quests. 

That's how I roll.   

[shock]

So I've got 3 characters now.  A paladin-type (one-handed, heavy armor, restoration, alteration, block), a mage, and a thief/assassin.  First two are about mid 20s and the assassin is about 30 now (he's going to be my main).  Super fun.  I've done all of the mage, warrior, and dark brotherhood quests on one character or another.  Done part of Imperial/Stormcloak on a few but haven't finished either.  Still need to do thieves guild.  I'm only like 4 quests into the main quest.  I'm starting that more tonight.  All of the guild quests (or whatever) are super fun and engaging.  I've loved all of them so far.

You start getting crazy shit at about level 30.  I can make like 10k gold from clearing out a dungeon.  It really makes me HATE the buy/sell vendor system, though.  I'm so tired of having to port to 5-6+ places just to find enough sellers to buy my crap.  Is there a mod that fixes this?  Either gives the sellers way more gold or does something else to make it not so annoying?  If not, I may just start dropping all of the stuff I found in a dungeon and giving myself 10k gold via the console.  I feel like I spend as much time exploring as I do selling, and I have minimal use for money anyway.

Assassin guy is pretty fun.  With the right perks and the right gear, I can 1 shot anyone if I sneak attack.  I haven't found anyone that can withstand it yet.  Dragons are a pain in the ass for a stealth character though.  I just run.  Unfortunately, quests with other NPCs can get borked because they break your stealth (IE a quest where you and some guy have to go and clear a place out).  There's no option to make them wait so they just waltz into a brightly lit room following me and alert everyone.  Then I usually can't get sneak attacks.  Haven't found a way to stop this yet.  If anything, I find this character to be a bit too easy.  When you hit 100 sneak + armor bonuses, it's literally almost impossible to be detected if you are crouched.

Mage is really fun too.  Might be my favorite.  My norm is to cast an alteration shield, conjure an atronarch, then spam destruction spells for whatever that atronarch is (IE if Frost, use frost spells).  Heal as necessary.  Dual casting is awesome.  Mage gear is great, too. and there is plenty to go around finally.  Overall, I like mages a lot more in this ES game than I ever have before.  I'm so happy with how far they have come from Morrowind where Magicka never regenerated.

My pally is really strong, but the gameplay got a little too mindless for me.  I would cast an alteration shield, then just charge into battle with my 1 hand and wail on whatever I was fighting.  I'd use a strong heal whenever I needed it.  Even with generous health upgrades, I can heal 75-100% of my health in one heal spell, which takes at most 1 second to cast.  The result is that I am seriously invincible so long as I am not facing 10+ guys.  Most things die pretty quickly with my sword.  Hack slash repeat snoooze.

I haven't done any smithing/enchanting yet.  I'll need to work on that. 

/random impressions and thoughts

[Cobra951]

Your assassin's sneak brings back memories.  I developed sneak with all my characters in Oblivion to the point where they were undetectable crouching unless they did something to draw attention.  Add a certain melee quirk into the mix, and it was downright comical.  If you can one-shot an enemy with a melee weapon while sneaking, any other enemies in the place will not be alerted to your presence, or even to the severity of what just happened.  They'll look at the body of their comrade as it falls across their field of view, and then do nothing at all.  They're next.  Haha!

Your post has made me want this game more than anything else I've read so far.

[shock]

Haha, glad to hear it.  Let me know if you have any questions or anything.  It's really a fantastic sequel and stays true to the ES series.  The quests are engaging, fun, and quite varied considering the huge amounts of content in the game.  The dungeons are MUCH improved over the ones of the past.  I haven't found two that use the same layout yet, and they are much longer than they were in Morrowind/Oblivion.  The character creation system is marvelous, and it does away with all of the math-crunching, tediousness, and rigidity of the previous games.  The scaling system that nearly ruined Oblivion for me has been largely fixed, although it's still somewhat imperfect. 

I've probably only put like 60 hours into it, but it seems like there are less bugs than in previous games.  Or at least less bugs that ruin quests/storylines.  I've only had that happen twice, and both had easy fixes (look up quest on wiki, look at bugs, do what it says to fix it).

Overall, it's got all of the magic of the previous games.  I'm going to be playing for a looooonngg time.  Get it!